Death doula discusses options for green burial

Published: Thursday, April 25, 2013 at 4:30 a.m.

Last Modified: Wednesday, April 24, 2013 at 9:28 p.m.

Death is a natural process, but what happens after you pass away isn’t always good for nature, says Michele Skeele.

Toxic embalming fluid can contaminate soil or water during decomposition. Cremation emits mercury and other pollutants into the air. And the metal coffins and vaults used in traditional cemeteries never biodegrade, their manicured and mowed plots displacing native plants and wildlife in perpetuity.

But as Skeele told those attending a “green burial” workshop Tuesday at the Environmental and Conservation Organization offices in Hendersonville, there are end-of-life alternatives that are more earth-friendly, including burials on family land or in “green” cemeteries, or donating your body to science.

“If we can do a burial that doesn’t include embalming, that includes a compostable container — and people are choosing wooden coffins, baskets, shrouds; you can even use Grandma’s quilt — these are all possibilities,” Skeele said.

Though focused on death, the workshop was part of ECO’s “Sustainable Living” series. Skeele, a home funeral advocate and certified death doula, has spent decades working on end-of-life issues, from hospice care to musical therapy for the dying.

She sees dying at home and being buried in more earth-friendly ways as part of a natural continuum.

“My philosophy is it’s all just one big circle,” Skeele says. “Birth, life, death, rebirth. But there’s a lot of confusion out there, a lot of misunderstanding in the general public about what’s really required, what the state laws are about end-of-life care and body disposition.”

North Carolina law does not require embalming, Skeele said, though some funeral homes demand it if public viewing is desired. Ditto for vaults and grave liners, which are not required by state law but often mandated by cemeteries to keep the ground from settling as bodies decompose.

“When you have a big space that’s going to be maintained and mowed, you don’t want machinery sinking down,” she explained.

By contrast, natural burial allows a body to “compost like everything else,” Skeele said, becoming one with the earth and its nutrients recycled by centipedes, worms and fungi. But she added, “In this day and age, our bodies are full of toxins that get released when we decompose in the ground.”

Skeele talked about a California company called Infinity that sells a “burial suit” infused with the spores of a unique strain of mushroom, which can “remediate the industrial toxins in our bodies.” She said this is probably the “greenest option,” though expensive.

Anyone over 18 years of age can act as a funeral director for a loved one, Skeele said, as long as no money exchanges hands. Family members also don’t need a permit to transport a body home for burial if no state lines are crossed, she said.

No state statute forbids burying your own loved one on family land, either, as long as it’s at least 18 inches below ground. Six feet under is better, she added.

However, Skeele said most cities and counties have local regulations pertaining to home burials. Hendersonville doesn’t allow them, she said, but Henderson County does with certain provisos. She advises people to check with their local health department to make sure the burial plot is far enough from water sources.

Skeele acknowledged not everyone is prepared to deal with home funerals, preferring to have a professional deal with necessary paperwork such as filing a death certificate and notifying the county registrar of the deceased’s passing.

For such folks, she suggested several “green” cemetery sections, where natural burials are handled using unobtrusive stone markers and biodegradable caskets. Moore Funeral Home at Forest Lawn in Candler is one local funeral service certified by the Green Burial Council (greenburialcouncil.com).

Another “very green” alternative, Skeele said, is donating your body to one of the “body farms” used by Western Carolina University and the University of Tennessee at Knoxville to teach forensic anthropology students and future medical examiners.

“That’s a very green because they have acres set aside for how bodies decompose in different situations,” Skeele said. Bodies are placed in car trunks, in water and on the ground in varying conditions to allow students to track how bodies interact with the environment.

The only drawback, she said, is remains are never returned to the family.

“Once you go, you’re gone,” Skeele said.

Reach Axtell at 828-694-7860 or than.axtell@blueridgenow.com.

Reader comments posted to this article may be published in our print edition. All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may not be re-published without permission. Links are encouraged.